Executive Director for Institutional Effectiveness
Application Procedure:
In your letter of qualifications ( human-resources-letter-of-qualification-template.docx ) using details and examples, please address all of the required and preferred qualifications for this position and how your experience and skills align.
Contact:
Contact:
Ferra Executive Search has been retained to manage the search. If you have any inquiries or nominations, please send an email to:
Kevin Ferra, President
Ferra Executive Search
kevin@ferrasearch.com
Please use ‘Executive Director, Institutional Effectiveness’ as the subject line when you contact Kevin
https://uidaho.peopleadmin.com/postings/52153
Kevin Ferra, President
Ferra Executive Search
kevin@ferrasearch.com
Please use ‘Executive Director, Institutional Effectiveness’ as the subject line when you contact Kevin
https://uidaho.peopleadmin.com/postings/52153
Job Duties
- Identifying the steps needed to create/maintain norms of engaging with and effectively using data across key institutional priority areas, e.g., improving students’ academic and co-curricular outcomes, increasing curricular efficiency, and better utilizing key metrics to inform resource allocation with the Assessment and Accreditation team, VPAI (Vice Provost for Academic Initiative), the University Assessment and Accreditation Committee (UAAC) and others.
- Collaboratively designing and implementing creative approaches to engaging the campus community to improve data literacy and data-informed decision-making
- Measuring the success of these approaches and use data to continually improve their outcomes
- Meeting regularly with key stakeholders, e.g., research support units, the UAAC, associate deans, chairs/heads, and others to understand key needs, such as intuitive, accessible interactive dashboards integrated into platforms already in use
- Designing and implementing creative approaches to meet such needs
- Prioritizing requests in collaboration with the VPAI to best achieve institutional goals
- Defining and prioritizing goals for the AA team and IR team with the VPAI
- Managing the team effectively to optimize its performance and collaborations with IR, AA,
and other units, faculty, and staff. - Advocating for, mentoring, and professionally developing the IR and AA teams.
- Completing additional projects and tasks as assigned by the Office of the Provost and
Executive Vice President, via the VPAI.
Job Qualifications
Required education: Master’s Degree
Required Experience:
Additional Preferred:
Required Experience:
- Three years’ experience in the following:
- Creating data literacy, data democratization, and data-informed decision-making as demonstrated in application materials
- Strategic leadership to forward key institutional goals and effectively balance multiple competing priorities by providing needed data, analyses, and solutions
- Leadership in designing processes for maximum efficiency in routine reporting as demonstrated in application materials
- Leading the development of intuitive, accessible, interactive dashboards and other tools that broaden data access and promote effective data use institution wide
- Experience designing and executing quantitative studies, and knowledge of qualitative and mixed methods study design
- Creativity and flexibility in meeting stakeholder needs while sustaining integrity of data definitions and other unit priorities as shown in application materials
Additional Preferred:
- Ph.D. in statistics, educational measurement, assessment, cognitive science, database management, machine learning, or other relevant discipline
- Demonstrated experience collaborating effectively with assessment, accreditation, research support, and other colleagues, including disciplinary faculty and academic administrators; building, leading, and contributing to effective cross-unit working groups; and tailoring effective communications in formal and informal settings
- Experience establishing, communicating, and leading others to implement a vision for promoting effective data use across an organization, including a demonstrated ability to effectively engage hesitant, skeptical, and/or inexperienced colleagues in developing data literacy and the capacity to use data effectively to inform decision-making
- Experience establishing unit priorities; motivating direct reports and staff to achieve priorities; and building collaborative, responsive, high-performing teams
- Demonstrated experience engaging faculty, staff, and students in using data effectively to improve academic, curricular efficiency, operational, budgetary, and other outcomes. Such experience will ideally include designing and implementing trainings, professional development materials and workshops, and the like.
- Strong experience in sophisticated analytical projects, e.g., diagnostic and prescriptive analyses designed to help identify students who could succeed with particular interventions and/or to measure the effectiveness of such interventions
- Experience leading or co-leading the development of data governance policies; structures and demonstrated knowledge of data definitions, storage, and management; and experience designing, implementing, or applying data ethics policies
- Evidence of strong initiative, creativity, and problem-solving skills
- Knowledge of federal, state, and other reporting required for institutions of higher education
Institution Description
The Executive Director will supervise UI’s Institutional Research (IR) and Assessment and Accreditation (AA) offices and will report to the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President through the Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives (VPAI). A key focus for this role will involve strengthening collaboration between the IR and AA teams. Working closely with the VPAI and other colleagues, the Executive Director will help UI use evidence-based practices in education, operations, and resource allocation; assessing these practices’ impact; and iteratively improving outcomes.
The executive director will provide visionary leadership, and high-level direction of institutional effectiveness at UI to equip colleagues with the data, analyses, and information needed to achieve key institutional goals. Goal areas include strategic enrollment; student success; curricular delivery and efficiency; budgeting; assessment and accreditation; federal, state, and other reporting; and other university priorities. To help the institution define key metrics, develop strategies, and gauge progress, the executive director will provide strategic leadership, high-caliber collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity. Further, the executive director will guide collaborations with a broad range of colleagues, including disciplinary faculty, academic administrators, assessment and accreditation professionals, research support units, human resources professionals, and others. The person in this role will supervise the creation of intuitive, user-friendly interactive dashboards and other resources for sharing data broadly throughout and beyond the campus community while maintaining requisite protections.
Further, the Executive Director will promote data-informed decision-making by leveraging relevant experience in designing and executing a broad range of quantitative analyses, building a data-literate, participating in UI’s data governance, implementing data democratization, and working with qualitative and mixed-methods studies. For example, the Executive Director will design and implement trainings to effectively engage colleagues at all levels of data literacy in using institutional data in decision-making and program improvement. The person in this position will take initiative to solve problems and address institutional challenges. Further, the Executive Director will draw on prior leadership experience with an emphasis on completing routine but essential tasks while also designing analyses, tools, and approaches needed to achieve university goals in key areas.
Benefits
Will be provided upon request.
Application Due Date: 2026-08-31
Job Start Date: 2026-11-01
Salary: Dependent on qualifications and experience.
City: Moscow
State/Province/Region: ID
Institution: University of Idaho
Reports To: Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives
Staff # Reporting to Position: 5
Reports In Office: Office of Institutional Effectiveness
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